Turkish gov’t applies 848 times to Germany via Interpol since July 2016

The Turkish government led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has submitted 848 requests for search or arrest to Germany via Interpol since a controversial coup attempt on July 15, 2016, according to a report by Deutsche Welle (DW) Turkish service on Wednesday.

In response to a parliamentary inquiry from Germany’s Left Party (Die Linke), the German Justice Ministry stated that Turkey has submitted 848 requests including applications to the law enforcement agency of the country to request the arrest of 791 people and to determine the residential addresses of 57 people located in Germany.

However, the German Justice Ministry has given no information regarding how many of Turkey’s applications have been responded to positively by Germany.

Meanwhile, Andrej Hunko, Die Linke’s European policy spokesperson, issued a statement and said that 130 search requests submitted to Interpol since 2014 have been canceled on the grounds that the people in question were being sought due to their political views and that the authority of Interpol was being abused.

“I think the majority of the applications for search or arrest that have been canceled on the grounds that Interpol is being abused have originated from Turkey, Ukraine and Spain. It is known that these countries use Interpol to suppress the opposition,” Hunko said.